Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 2 of 2: A Historical, Geographical, Political, Statistical and Social Account of that Country from the Period of the Invasion by the Spaniards to the Present Time.Mayer, Brantz
History
Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 2 of 2: A Historical, Geographical, Political, Statistical and Social Account of that Country from the Period of the Invasion by the Spaniards to the Present Time.
The following extract from a communication by an officer of our army, in
1847, during the invasion of Mexico, contains some interesting facts,
and corrects scientifically the measurements of the pyramid which were
made by Baron Humboldt:
All the mornings of this elevated region, even in the rainy season, are
bright and charming; the sun rises in unclouded splendor, gilding one of
the most magnificent landscapes the imagination can conceive, whilst the
atmosphere is so pure and elastic that it is a positive pleasure to
breathe it. On such a morning, in company with the 4th regiment of
artillery, acting as infantry, and a squadron of horse, we sallied from
the city through the _garita_ of Cholula, and soon found ourselves in
the extensive plain skirting the base of the volcanoes of
Puebla--Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl. Before us glittered in the
morning's sun their snow-capped summits; on our right rose the Malinche,
with its craggy crest partially enveloped in a wreath of mist; whilst
behind us, in the far distance, towered the indistinct form of the
Orizaba--that well-known landmark of the seaman, that serves to guide
him in calm and in storm, hundreds of miles along the Mexican coast. The
nearer landscape was as soft and picturesque as its more distant
features were grand and sublime. A green meadow or prairie extended
around us for some miles in every direction, dotted with villas and
haciendas, and relieved by occasional patches of cultivation, and
avenues and clusters of the beautiful shade willow. Herds of cattle and
horses grazed as quietly on the surrounding estates as though
"grim-visaged war" had long since "smoothed his wrinkled front," and our
military escort, as it wound its way over the fair landscape, with
glittering arms and glancing banners, seemed more like a holyday
procession than a band of stern veterans so recently from the conflict,
and so soon to enter it again. A ride of an hour and a quarter, which
our horses, as they snuffed the morning breeze and scented the fresh
grass of the meadows, seemed to enjoy as much as their riders, brought
us to the base of the far-famed pyramid, which, independently of its
historical recollection, and the great interest attached to it as a
work of art, forms one of the most picturesque features of the
landscape. At a short distance it presents the appearance of a natural
mound, covered with a luxuriant growth of trees and shrubbery, and is
surmounted by a simple chapel, whose belfry towers some eighty feet
above the pyramid. A road winds round the pyramid from base to summit,
up which we passed on horseback. This road is cut into the pyramid, in
some places, six or eight feet, and here one sees the first evidence of
the artificial construction of the latter. It is built of _adobes_, or
sun-dried brick, interspersed with small fragments of stone--porphyry
and limestone. Its dimensions, as stated by Humboldt, are: base 1,060,
elevation 162 feet; but its altitude is much greater.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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